Chaos
by Vanessa S. Quest
Summary: Mayhem happens a little differently each time around... Episode What If Prompt from IKY'dU forum Slight AU, slight suckage... but please R & R all the same if you're reading it. Hotch and Reid-centric.


It was late, the terror alert was orange, and everyone was exhausted. The trouble was, they were also running short on time. They still didn't know which organization was responsible for the attacks, and that didn't sit well with anyone on the team.

Kate had made the suggestion of revisiting the crime scenes, to establish any potential patterns going on beyond what the BAU had already determined. What they knew was that the terrorists would make two attacks, the first bomb would attack civilians, or public-sector at least while the second string would attack first-responders. Hotch ran his fingers through his hair, it felt strange not to have the typical tug of metal entangle his hair with his wedding band now removed.

"Reid, you're with me." He said almost sighing from his fatigue. Reid nodded, eagerly grabbing his messenger bag and the large coffee, and what Hotch sorely suspected was the root cause of Reid's new-found energy.

Visiting the third bombing site, Reid was obviously remapping important infrastructure elements in the geographical profile playing behind his brown eyes.

Hotch turned to face him as they walked back to the car. "What is it?"

"We really should call off all first responders until an area is secured." Reid was pensive, Hotch understood why, but usually 'first responders' were police, FBI, and much-needed paramedics. Civilians wouldn't understand the urge for the forerunners to suddenly shy away when lives were at stake.

"It's a hard pill for the public to swallow."

"Well it isn't like getting more people killed is easier." Reid countered, rightly. Hotch pulled out his phone and called JJ.

When they reached the fourth bombing location, Reid clicked his tongue already postulating several likely locations for the next set of attacks. "We should probably look into any highly publicized events coming up here," he pulled a map out onto his lap signaling within a 3/4 mile area. "And any highly guarded information too. Something is going on in this area that they want to affect the outcome of… these attacks- while they all instill fear they aren't targeting a specific aspect of life, it's not targeting solely economic stability or even religious fervor or cultural icons… it makes me think that it's more politically motivated."

"…Almost all terrorism is 'politically motivated', believe in my system or I'll kill you, you know the deal."

"Yeah, true, but that's not how I mean it when I say politically. I mean…" Reid rumpled his own hair, "I don't know what I mean. I can't figure it out, I just think the way the targets are set so far are to confuse us, not dissuade us from any particular sense of security or stability. It feels… well it just feels wrong, like this is about smoke and mirrors, they're acting more like assassins then terrorists." He almost let himself huff out a 'there, I said it!' but didn't.

"I don't see your logic, they attack highly visible targets and guarantee media attention and have established a signature and pattern, they attack civilians then they attack civil servants."

"But doesn't that just feel like a bait…?"

"No, it doesn't, Reid." Hotch admitted, he understood Reid to be a genius, but that didn't stop him from getting caught on the wrong scent trail and going off on tangents sometimes, he was immediately reminded of 'eviler twins' a hypothesis Reid once shot off that made Hotch almost smack him, or himself… the urge to hit _something_ was there though. Probably not Reid though, since he never wanted to harm his subordinates ever, especially Spencer… REID… especially Reid. "I don't think we're going to get anything else out of this scene, we should head back."

Reid fiddled with his bag feeling dejected, his idea was completely plausible, to him at least. But then again, maybe Hotch was picking up on something he wasn't. After all, he was hardly infallible, the reason they were great was the BAU relied on top notch people and the interaction and communication allowed for free exchange of ideas until something that felt right to everyone stuck, and then that usually led to an unsub being brought in, in the latest accessories of matching metal bracelets.

Hotch stopped for a moment, patting down his coat pockets wondering where the keys went as Reid continued to waltz up to the driver's side door. "Reid, you haven't… seen my keys have you?"

Reid merely smiled successfully, "Why Hotch, don't tell me you lost them?" He held them up suddenly, his smile transforming into a smirk, "You should let me drive anyway, you're tired, and I still have energy to burn."

"You drive like an old man, Reid." Hotch accused, Reid stuck his tongue out at the (truthful) comment.

"Well at least I can tell when someone's got their hands in my jacket pockets."

Hotch was almost wont to accuse Reid of being unfair, using magic, but the spark as Reid inserted in the key into the driver's side door was enough to suddenly push all reason out of his mind.

The dark evening sky and city street was suddenly rocked by a flash of white which faded to yellow then a faint orange ember glow, the smell of burning… Hotch could smell so many things burning, it hit right after the loud clap of sound that he almost hadn't registered hearing, but certainly felt as it shot him down the road before he tumbled and fell.

Several moments were lost as he recollected what the hell just happened.

There was an explosion, the terrorists struck again. His ears were ringing, his head throbbed with the reverberation, but something… something was missing, where had he been going, where had he been coming from…? He started to scan the street trying to collect all these thoughts, then the idea that other people might have been hurt reached him.

Who those people were didn't, not immediately, "Reid… Reid do you see anyone?" That's when it clicked, he didn't even _see_ Reid, but Reid had clearly been with him before the explosion…

…Before the SUV exploded! Hotch suddenly forced himself up as he started to search for Reid amidst the burning SUV, as he had been blasted roughly 6 meters away, he spotted Reid, almost 3 meters away from the vehicle in a different direction, he rushed to his fallen comrade, "REID! REID ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" He didn't realize he was yelling, he couldn't hear himself yelling, to him he was asking it calmly… alright, maybe frantically, but quietly all the same!

He made the hasty steps to where Reid was, it was roughly 5 meters away between where he had landed and where Reid had. He grabbed his cell phone and began pushing buttons, when the screen kept going dark he realized he had no signal, every time he tried to make a call out, it wound up going into a screen-saver, finally after a minute of agony, he _finally_ got something- an incoming call.

He saw the name flash on the screen, JJ, he answered the phone after it rang out for half a first ring, "JJ—JJ can you hear me…?"

"Hotch- there's been – plosio – you – ere?" The line went dead, and JJ internally cursed the local cell networks. She dialed Hotch again only to get a 'signal not detected' and subsequent voice-message, that's when she dialed Garcia and was glad to have better luck as she finally was able to get hold of at least one team member.

"JJ! Oh thank goodness—I just got in touch with Morgan and Prentiss before the phone lines went down. Have you heard from anyone else?"

"I tried Hotch but didn't get through, I haven't heard from Rossi and Reid's with Hotch."

"Are you alright?" Garcia asked.

"Yeah, I was at the station, where is Morgan and Prentiss?"

"Morgan was in the field, we're trying to find out where the explosion originated from, but we saw the light-show from the precinct so it has to be somewhat nearby."

"Garcia, are any of the city's surveillance feeds still up?"

"Yeah, I'm going block but block with the time-stamp trying to get closer to it. I'll tell you when I have something."

"Alright, I'm calling Rossi—try to get a hold of Hotch and Reid, okay?" JJ asked, Garcia's hum of a yes was all the confirmation JJ needed before she hung up.

Garcia's fingers nimbly scrawled over her extended keypad to enter in the digits to Reid's cell before hitting send, she could now see fire from the explosion just barely visible from the screen, one more prompt should pull up what she needed—no one answered on Reid's end, in fact there wasn't even a ring-tone, it went into a quick 'server not available' which she found strange, since the phones would normally hit voice mail if not try to dial, that is unless the entire server was crashing with panicked denizens trying to reach their loved ones within the area, after it was rocked by the explosion.

Her phone rang, she quickly answered it, "Garcia! Tell me you found out where the bomb went off…?"

"My chocolaty delight, have I ever been one to disappoint…?" She smiled, but suddenly it faltered. "Oh no… oh no oh no oh no this can NOT be it!"

"Garcia, what is it, baby-girl?"

"Oh my god! Derek! It's… the explosion's at Hotch and Reid's location… oh my god Derek it's their SUV! The bomb originated at their SUV!"

"WHAT?" Morgan glared into the phone as if that would somehow change facts, "Garcia- their location- NOW!"

"57nd and 3rd! I have to pull more footage… maybe… maybe it's not really…" Her breathing was becoming rapid, Morgan took that as a bad sign, she must be seeing something horrible.

Well, like watching an SUV explode in a populated area wasn't horrible… seeing two colleagues go with it… Derek chided his own dark thoughts, there was no proof of that… He took the keys to his SUV and was making his way there as they spoke.

"I got it… I'm playing the footage back… there… come on… right there… oh Spencer don't go there… Reid don't…" She began pleading to the screen, "Please notice something's off… please…" The image rippled and distorted in a flash of heat, as the frames passed in slow motion she could visibly see Reid being thrown back from the force of the explosion. "This angle's no good… I can't see Hotch in it… but… oh god, Morgan, Reid's in it… he- he was at ground zero!"

Morgan choked back, wincing at the unpleasant thought. Why did it always have to be Reid?

Hotch scrambled to assess Reid's situation, the first ominous sign was that he was unresponsive. The second was that he was down-right quiet, and still. A state that a certain Dr. Spencer Reid on that much coffee seldom found himself in, Hotch squeezed Reid's shoulder, calling his name.

"Reid… Reid can you hear me?"

Reid let out a soft moan, "Hnn…" His head lolled to the side, Hotch could see the gray-black soot caked to the side of Reid's face, hell even his hair and shirt were marred with scorches. Reid's pants suffered a bit more, with actual evidence of tears thanks to shrapnel, Hotch wasn't sure if it was promising or mortifying that those weren't bleeding, but as he saw Reid's head turn he took it to be a better sign than he hoped.

"Reid! Reid come on, wake up, talk to me Reid!" Hotch continued to coax, this time getting more results.

"Hotch…?" Reid's eyes began blinking open, he felt exhausted, hadn't he been the one who was energetic just a few minutes ago? He didn't know what could have zapped him of his strength to cause it… until he noticed the burnt orange glow illuminating the night sky, it made him feel strangely remiss for Halloween, well, at least for October, the fall colors were all there. He realized the SUV was obliterated, "Are you hurt?"

Hotch gave Reid such a pitiable look that told Reid he was too far in shock, saying he couldn't even maintain his own shields, to even know. He began to piece together why he'd receive that look, "Am _I_ hurt…?"

Reid recognized Hotch's shock but that was no promise that he wasn't entering it himself. He tried to look up and down his own body. He saw red and blue sirens play against the still dark blue sky, in the opposite direction of the burnt-amber behind him. Hotch turned to look where Reid was staring.

"Why aren't they coming to help us…?" Hotch muttered more to himself than to Reid, but Reid knew the answer like he usually did and volunteered it.

"We told them not to. If the terrorist is watching still, he'll attack the first responders next." Reid bit back for a moment, he felt nausea roll over him in a sickening sine-wave of on again off again displeasure. Reid stiffened as he realized there should be more pain than what he was feeling. He probably had broken several bones, possibly ruptured some internal organs, yet the most he felt was nausea… he filed that internally under dooming.

"No one else is here though…" Hotch sounded almost unnerved, to Reid, well, unnerved in 'Hotchinese' was not exactly unnerved in anyone else's spoken dialect, in fact it sounded rather even if anyone else had delivered the moving speech. But it wasn't just anyone, that barely audible level of emotion was more prolific in verse than Beowulf. Reid rolled his head to the side, following a trace of movement.

There was a young man there, college-age, looked white. He was in urban clothes, the kind to blend in with the crowd and move with ease, he had earbuds pulled from his ears, and just Reid's luck- he decided to approach them.

"Holy shit! Are you two hurt…?"

Reid wondered if normal people go through explosions unscathed typically and he just somehow never heard about the amazing statistic, he felt uneasy for some reason, he felt himself running through the profile of who would be a suicide-bomber, but realized that his earlier profile of a goal-based assassin wouldn't meet this man's description.

"I'll call 911…" The young man offered, pulling his cell phone out. Reid wondered why he'd do that, since they could see the cops from where they were.

"Don't bother… they're already here." Hotch said cynically, shirking towards the cops a block away.

"Why aren't they helping you then!" He said, vehemently, "You're friend's really messed up…" He tried to soften his voice, as if it would make Reid deaf to the comments, he wasn't though.

"You have to get out of here so they CAN approach…" Reid said, "You're a bystander… you have to walk away."

Hotch heard his phone chirp, somehow, and answered it. Garcia pounced from the other end, "THAT'S THE UNSUB!" was broken into phone gibberish and Hotch, already impaired with his hearing thanks to the explosion only caught a few odd non-sensible syllables of "AH UH UB" with static and silence interlaced between them.

"Gar-a, you' brea'ing up… an't … you…" was played back to her, in her horror within her techy hub. She bit her lip tersely, hoping Morgan would get there soon as she watched the live video feed.

Hotch disconnected, suddenly there was a commotion down the block, it made him worry that they were about to witness the second attack but was instead surprised to see Morgan pushing through, shouting something animatedly though even if Hotch's hearing was currently working perfectly, he doubted he'd have heard it over the rumble of engines and wailing sirens.

"You don't understand! Those are my men out there!"

"You Feds ordered NO first responders approach 'til it's clear!" The sergeant argued.

"And I don't give a damn if your men stay back, but those are MY guys… I'll risk my own neck…"

"Don't make us cuff you!" The sergeant threatened again.

"That guy out there, near my men- THAT'S who you should be tryin' to cuff! He's the one who planted a bomb under the Tahoe!" And that seemed to be enough of a distraction Morgan needed to break through the grasps of the men and start rushing the barricade. "I'm takin' that SOB down- get those two to a hospital!"

Reis was shocked to see the young man refusing to leave their sides, "Don't you get it? THEY can't help US with YOU here… you need to GO." It came out heatedly, but Reid expected no less of himself, Hotch was hurt and needed medical care, of course Reid would put on a show of ire if that helped… that and he was in no certain state of what his own condition was.

"…" The young man paused as if to think about the options, and then began backing up. Hotch was the one who seemed surprised as he watched someone from beyond the barricade move closer, they were running but he wasn't sure if that was unexpected with time being sensitive and all. He had assessed Reid, there was obvious trauma, but no obvious bleeding, chances are that meant something was either impaling him that he couldn't see, or he was bleeding internally which seemed more likely. There was nothing Hotch could do for him in that situation, only an emergency personnel would really know what to do for him now. It scared him, immensely… Reid meant the world to Hotch…

He realized the person wasn't running to him and Reid after a few moments and suddenly fell a swell of rage, when he realized it was Morgan, the rage subsided to suspicion, but still felt betrayed. Morgan was chasing down the kid who had been buzzing about…

It hit Hotch almost instantly, "That was the bomber!"

"…He's a suicide bomber… why would he run away?" Reid thought aloud, "Hotch… there's a second unsub… I think the second unsub'll be the type 3 assassin…"

"There isn't a second unsub, Reid! He set up the first bomb so he would be around for the second wave."

"That doesn't make sense, Hotch! All the others operated in pairs!" Reid argued, he had to admit, arguing was keeping him from being as tired as he felt- alright, so it kept him awake, he still _felt_ incredibly tired.

The sound of a gun shot was muted to Hotch, but Reid flinched, the unsub fell to the ground, bleeding as Morgan approached him, Reid couldn't make out the exchange though, the unsub was on the ground, it was clean and he was alive, then he was rolled over, cuffed and being hoisted up, his blood was splurting out of a shoulder GSW and Reid felt strangely envious of taking a bullet after being blown up.

The sounds of a gurney wheeling toward them did encourage Reid to let his fatigue show through, he was getting more tired than he'd expect, seeing as to how he couldn't find any bleeding, but then he supposed internal bleeding would be more likely a candidate. He probably ruptured his spleen, as he was certain he broke several ribs.

"Reid- stay awake, you have to stay with me…" Hotch was talking, Reid knew he was but what he was saying just wasn't reaching him. He could feel Hotch pulling on him, pressure on him, but he couldn't process it.

"Open your eyes, Reid! That's an order…!"

Before he even realized he was closing his eyes, Reid was swimming in a sea of blackness.

Hotch was confronted by a lone paramedic, he gawked, unsure of how to proceed. Where was his partner…? His eyes seemed to beg the question enough, because the paramedic said something.

"My partner was afraid we'd be hit… he's sitting it out." He mentioned, "Can you drive?"

Hotch nodded and started for the ambulance, "What hospital?"

"Lincoln Memorial… It's the closest one, it's about fourteen blocks away…"

Reid was loaded onto the ambulance, the paramedic was talking to himself, assessing the situation, stating what medications he was injecting, what he was doing, almost as if Hotch was his partner and could actually understand what the hell he was talking about.

"How is he…?" Hotch asked nervously.

"It's not looking good, we have to hurry!"

"How much further?"

"Take a right on the next street, then take the third left."

Hotch followed the directions, going 80 in the night streets, Marshall Law made that easier than it should have been. "Then what?"

"Keep going straight, the hospital's near the entrance for the tunnel, on the right."

Hotch pulled to a secured gate, two armed guards were waving their arms to stop him in protest.

"Sir, you can't come here…"

"I'm a Federal Agent, I have a man down, he won't make it if you turn us away!" Hotch mustered an authoritative voice, his head was still swimming in anguish.

They looked at him strangely, the paramedic came up from the back of the ambulance, leaning forward to relay the triage information, "This man's bleeding to death, if he doesn't get brought into surgery in the next three minutes he's not coming out of this."

The guards exchanged looks, then proceeded to open the gates, radioing in the call. Hotch drove through the gates, and as they arrived at the loading area of the ER, doctors rushed out to assist in his removal from the back of the ambulance. Hotch stumbled in behind him, the paramedic, handing off bags to the nurses continued to convey the stats of Reid to the emergency personnel.

"He's unresponsive and unconscious, signs of head trauma, his right 11th rib punctured his liver, and his right lower leg is swelling with blood. It looks like there's a tear in the anterior tibial artery."

The doctor pulled out a pair of scissors and began chopping off the fabric of the pant leg before pulling off the tourniquet. "We're pulling him into the OR. I need two units O-neg and a serum panel!"

Hotch watched in horror as Reid was wheeled into surgery, his phone began to wail, he pulled it from his pocket and answered.

"Hotch."

"HOTCH! THE AMBULANCE DRIVER! HE'S AFTER THE CONGRESSMAN AT LINCOLN HOSPITAL!" Morgan shouted, Hotch's head whipped around, feeling strangely nostalgic to the Dodd case, he felt Reid's warnings of a Type 3 assassin slap him in the face.

He was rushing to the nearest guard, realizing that he looked more secret service than national guard now that he had time to process it. As he relayed the details, they began to scour the hospital for the terrorist, the sound of several shots ringing out had surprised him- and again triggered memories of an eerily parallel situation. Only then, he knew he could convince Dodd to focus on _him_ and that Reid would be safe, after all… Dodd had a bone to pick with alpha-males, some piss-ant beta-type would be _beneath_ him in his mind. Terrorists weren't narcissists though. They didn't care who they killed or hurt to get to their targets. He felt rage boiling up.

He saw the target, he hadn't seen Hotch yet though, he was waving around a gun and holding a detonator which was attached to a supply of home-made explosives. Hotch made the executive decision that no one would die unnecessarily today, and took the head shot. The man slumped over as the guards quickly swooped in on the trigger, bomb squad called in to disarm. As the bubbling storm disarmed itself, Hotch slumped, himself, before collapsing to the floor.

Reid's eyes flickered open to realize he was in bed, turning to his side he could see Hotch staring at him.

"Hey… you finally woke up…" Hotch smiled, pressing the call button.

Reid tilted his head to the side. "How long was I out for?"

"…A week." Hotch smiled.

"Where am I?"

"You're in a VA hospital. We're in Henrico County." Hotch mentioned.

"What happened…?"

Hotch cocked his head to the side, "We apprehended the second unsub, you were right, there was a type 3."

"That isn't what I meant." Reid looked down across his body, he felt the confines of the bandages.

"What did you mean then…?" Hotch asked.

Reid considered it for a moment before mentioning, "Your wrist." He pointed to a bracelet clearly indicating Hotch's patronage of the hospital as well. "I'm not the only guest here, I thought you would be okay… so what happened?"

Hotch smiled, "Your almost dying put me in critical condition." His eyes shone ruefully as he spoke.

Reid's own eyes narrowed, "I think that was the car-bomb, actually."

"Possibly, but this past week has been hell. You gave everyone a scare." He watched as brown eyes looked concerned, then calculating.

"I'm glad it was this way, actually." Reid mentioned after a few minutes. Hotch's eyes went wide, baffled. "…If you had been driving… if it had been YOU hurt… I think I'd have had a heart attack."

Hotch met his eyes, Reid smiled faintly, embarrassed acutely before looking back down.

End.

(Yeah… so that didn't go the way I thought it would… but this is a OS and I have work tomorrow so I'm ending it here. Sorry.)


End file.
